Or going down faster than David Chiu’s chances at Room 200 if Mayor Ed Lee runs for a full term in November? Or going down faster than a cheap beer at Chris Daly’s new bar? Or going down faster than a skateboarder with a death wish on Lombard Street? (There are a surprising number of videos of the latter on You Tube.)

But whatever metaphor you choose when it comes to the dismantling of the city’s fairly new public financing system, it could be wrong.

John St. Croix, director of the Ethics Commission, said he’s still combing over the court’s 68-page ruling striking down Arizona’s system that would have given extra public funds to candidates who were outspent by their competitors or by independent expenditure operations. The court said it was a violation of free speech and that it would discourage backers of, say, Candidate Smith from supporting him if it would automatically trigger state spending on his competitor.

“I can’t tell you with great certainty,” St. Croix said. “But we may not need to do anything because there’s sufficient dissimilarity between Arizona’s program and ours.”

Our program – being used for the first time in a competitive mayor’s race – gives increments of public money to candidates as they raise more and more in private, local donations. The big prize is $900,000 in public funds after a candidate has raised $575,000 on their own.

St. Croix said that’s all kosher under the Supreme Court’s ruling. The tricky part could come if anybody breaks the $1.475 million cap, at which point it’s broken for everyone.

But still, San Francisco candidates have to keep raising private, local funds to qualify for public financing above the cap. No free city money flows into their accounts just because a third party spent money on another candidate, St. Croix said.

“In Arizona, when independent expenditures reach a certain point, you can automatically get the government’s money,” St. Croix said. “In our system, you don’t just get it. You have to raise private funds.”

St. Croix said he wants to sort this all out at the Ethics Commission rather than wait for a court challenge. He said the safest option may be just halting any public funds to any one candidate at the $900,000 mark, but allowing them to raise more on their own.

“We’ll do what we can to make sure our system is in sync with what the courts require,” St. Croix said.

So how much public dough are the candidates raking in so far? Plenty.

The city has given out more than $2.6 million already and anticipates spending more than $8 million before election day. City Attorney Dennis Herrera, former Supervisor Bevan Dufty, venture capitalist Joanna Rees, State Sen. Leland Yee and former Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier are the top fundraisers so far.